The Weary Find Rest

Introduction

I remember back a year ago the first Area Wide DNOW I helped lead here in Grady County. I had a really long day that Saturday including picking up the band at 6 am getting breakfast and then a full day of DNOW and visits. I then had a calling from the Lord to change up some of the topics of the sermon I was going to preach that Sunday. My head hit the pillow at 1 am on Sunday morning. I cried. The wave of relief from finally being able to rest my head just overcame me and I began to actually cry. My body was desperate for rest. God knows we need rest and I believe He has shown us through His word that we need it. Would you turn in your bibles with me to 1 Kings Chapter 19

1 Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and ahow he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”

3 And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”

5 He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.”

6 Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.

7 The angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.”

8 So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.

I believe there are three observations we should take from this passage about biblical rest.

The Journey

We have jumped into the middle of the story so we need some context. Elijah just had a major triumph over the Prophets of Baal at Mount Caramel. The only reason these prophets were in the country was due to the failed leadership of the King Ahab and the choices He allowed His Queen Jezebel to make. Elijah has walked a long journey. He is exhausted. In the passage we just read he prays that he would just die. He is so exhausted by the journey he has walked that he just wants it to all end. Just like Elijah we all have a journey we walk and many of us can relate to Elijah. We have been doing so much for so long that we are exhausted. It is more than a feeling of sleepiness. Sometimes we neglect rest so long our very soul is weary. I have seen the journey many of you walk. I have witnessed first hand the business that life provides. Busyness is not wrong, but busyness is not always right. In this moment Elijah is running from the place that God has placed him. I believe he is in disobedience. He is so weary that he has forgotten the work God has just done through him on Mount Caramel. I have seen how God treats disobedience. I have seen in the Bible how he has punished it. He has caused some to wonder, he has caused some to die, and has replaced some with others that will do the job. However, God does none of this to Elijah. Why? Because Elijah was not disobedient in his heart. He was just weary. Elijah was depressed and at the end of himself, so much so that he wanted to just die. However, God was not done with him. I have witnessed that people tend to give up on their story before God is willing to. How then do we combat this weariness. We rest.

The Rest

God responds to Elijah’s moment of disobedience by giving him the rest he needed. The angel of the Lord comes to him twice. We know the Angel of the Lord is the form God took to interact with humanity. God himself came to Elijah and provided food, water, and a place to rest. Biblical rest is directly tied to God’s provision. He will provide it we just have to be obedient and accept it. God knows exactly what we need and when we need it. He knows we need rest. This is what I mean that busyness is not always right. Sometimes it is okay to rest.

How what are some ways we can rest.

Rest is more than just physical. It encompasses our full being both our body and our spirit. Some examples of rest

Isolate and get away if that is what you need. If instead you enjoy people then go out to dinner with a group and catch up.

Include prayer. When Jesus escaped and got away he was always praying to God.

Have a day where the calendar is empty. The feeling of looking at an empty calendar for me is almost as restful as the day.

Spend specific and intentional time with your family or those you love. Your family is a gift from God and to spend time with them can be part of the recharge we need.

Turn off your phone or make it clear that you are unavailable.

However, Rest is specific to you. I know this though God knows your needs and he will provide the time to do so.

So are we to rest so that we can be lazy. Why is rest provided?

The Restoration

The last observation is the restoration of Elijah. I believe rest is provided so that we may accomplish the mission God has set before us. The last verse tells us that on this rest, drink, and food Elijah is sustained for 40 days and nights and is brought to Horeb. We do not have time to read it all but on Horeb God interacts with Elijah. After all of this, He calls Elijah to go and call the two next kings and not only that but to call the next prophet who will take his place Elisha. With a man that had given up on his life and his journey, God called out two kings and set up the next prophet who would continue to do great things after Elijah ascended. God is a restoring God. God is in the business of using broken vessels for His glory. There is no experience on your journey that God cant redeem. If you are alive God is not done. The rest God provides is not just so we may sit in laziness. His rest is so that we may complete the work he has set before us. It is so when the weight of the world crushes us, we place our strength and dependency in the one who will lift us up again.

Conclusion

This morning we know that we all have a journey and for many it has made us weary. Your God wants to provide you with rest and He wants to restore you so that you may continue your journey well.

For us this morning I ask you do a couple things

acknowledge your journey. Take some time this week to take inventory where you are and what God is doing. Are you weary? Are you tired? Do you need rest

Jot down some ways specific to you and your family that will help you to seek rest. Pray to the Lord to reveal opportunities and little moments of rest in an otherwise busy life.

When God has given you rest, ask what is the next thing you have for me to do? and be faithful to obey the Lord.

This morning the alter is open to the weary to find rest. It is open for you to give your busyness to the Lord.